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How Life Teaches Us Basics of the Economy

Knowledge of economics is not acquired in a Choom Gang environment or as a student on “scholarship” at privileged schools or as a community organizer or politician.

Nov. 23, 2014 5:32 p.m. ET

In response to your Nov. 15 editorial “Obama’s Latest Economics Lesson”: You ask “if President Obama has even the vaguest idea how a private economy works?” The answer is—no, he does not. The foundations of that knowledge are usually learned as a young person, delivering papers, babysitting, mowing lawns, helping to tend a farm, working a soda fountain or grilling burgers, clerking at the local merchants or bagging groceries and more recently inventing a new technology product. Knowledge of the private economy is further honed with jobs that help pay for books and tuition, first cars, apartments and family expenses. This...